Gundam Wing: Eternity in an Instant
by Rei Ayanami2
Summary: The war is not over... the Barton Army is not destroyed. It has been barely 2 months and mankind faces yet another war...


Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of the characters except Yuna Kai. Blah, blah, blah…  
  
  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
1.1 Chapter One: Lost emotions  
  
The year is After Colony (A.C.) 197. It has now been 2 months since Operation Meteor was prevented and true peace finally seems to be at hand. But somewhere in the depths of space, an evil power is waiting for the right time to make its move…  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Heero sighed as he stared out at the night sky. It'd been the same dream again… that girl and her dog. It kept coming back, night after night after night… But he conquered it. Hadn't he? He was sure that true peace had finally come… but then why the visions? Was there something else that was causing these memories to come back?  
  
Relena… yes, there was Relena. The feeling always returned to his heart. He missed her, even though the last time he'd seen her was just 2 weeks ago. 'I'm a Gundam pilot, though the war may be over I would still cause more problems for her than solutions… But still a visit can't do much harm, can it?' Heero shook himself; he wondered how this strange yet wondrous feeling had returned to him after such a long time of being void of it.  
  
He used to feel so fulfilled whenever he fought; he called himself a warrior when he found his humanity in turmoil. But after he found her… Relena…  
  
Now those times of grief and war were over. What was there to do? Get a proper life? Start a new life from scratch? What was wrong? Why wasn't he at least trying make a start to his new life? It was as though something else was holding him back… telling him that he couldn't leave his old life. At least… not just yet.  
  
Heero slid quietly back into his bed. He didn't like this feeling… whatever it was. It wasn't good. That girl and her dog… he hadn't had that dream since the Eve Wars ended. But for the past week, the dream had been coming back every time he slept… waking him up… reminding him of his one mistake… He had no idea what this feeling was, or why it kept coming back. But he'd find out or face it, sooner or later… he would… he'd have to.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Excuse me, Mr. Wright?" A young soldier had walked into the room and was now addressing an elderly man who was sitting silently behind a desk; the light from the window behind him seemed to outline his shape even more than usual. The room was desolate and empty and the only source of light was from the fading light coming from the window giving the whole place an eerie feeling to it; the soldier shuddered when he entered further into the room.  
  
The old man swivelled around on his chair to face the soldier. His face was old and wrinkled but his eyes were of one who had no mercy or compassion. Though he wore glasses no-one could fail to notice his eyes… eyes that had seen the deaths of innocents everywhere and felt nothing… eyes that had looked upon the Earth and decided to attack it without a second thought… "Yes? What is it, Giles?"  
  
Giles swallowed hard, "Sir. I have just received word that all of your armies are ready and are currently awaiting your orders, sir." he said with a touch of nervousness, and no-one could blame him really…  
  
"I see…" Wright stood up, walked over to where Giles was standing and turned to face him, Giles stiffened but remained still.  
  
"Please inform them to wait until I give further orders… it's not time yet."  
  
"Sir. Yes, sir." He quickly saluted once before turning around and exiting the room in haste. Wright continued to look at the doorway for a few moments and then strode over to the window behind his desk.  
  
It had begun to snow in the colony and as he gazed out the window, flakes were gently floating down, making the colony seem like a waterglobe. Slowly, he sat down and asked himself the universal question-Why?  
  
'Why didn't you listen to me, Dekim?' He sighed and continued to look out the window. 'Why were you so impatient? If you'd just waited a little longer then all would have gone our way.'  
  
Calet's brown eyes became cold and hard. And as he observed the people in the colony that was stretched out before him, he muttered one word…  
  
"Soon."  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Back on Earth, a girl called Yuna Kai woke with a start.  
  
Without thinking, she shot her hand under the pillow, pulled out her handgun and released the safety mechanism. She sat bolt upright, pointing the barrel in the general direction she heard the noise in, ready to fire. There was no one there. She breathed a sigh of relief and engaged the safety mechanism again. It became apparent to her as to what had woken her as she stood up and peered around her dormitory. Her laptop was sitting on the desk, flashing a message on the screen.  
  
'Incoming transmission.'  
  
'That must have been it…' thought Yuna. 'I'll bet it was the warning siren my laptop made when the transmission was coming through that woke me. Lucky I turned the volume down…' She got out of bed, walked over to the laptop and hit the 'Enter' key, the screen jumped and went fuzzy.  
  
"This is Lightning, use secret lines H to V to respond."  
  
"This is Ice. The line is secure, please go ahead."  
  
A few seconds after this, the screen jumped again and the image of a man started to come into focus.  
  
"Yuna, have you heard about the Serpent troops?"  
  
"Yes, they've been constructing them on Earth. Am I correct?"  
  
"Affirmative. The New Edward's base is acting as one of the main communications ports between the Barton armies that are in space and the Barton armies on Earth. You must attack the base directly; destroying it will buy us some time. Be prepared though, they have quite a significant defence line put up."  
  
"Understood."  
  
"I can't believe I let this happen…" Her captain frowned.  
  
"It wasn't your fault, sir."  
  
"I could've spotted this so much earlier… and to think that I only found out yesterday that they were planning to launch their first assault tomorrow!" Yuna could see that he was very frustrated at himself and decided to try and make him feel better. She'd felt like that many times before as well.  
  
"Sir, not even the Preventers could spot this in time." she tried to say but the captain just sighed.  
  
"Thank you, Yuna. Your words mean much to all of us but that won't help the current situation. Mankind shall have to face another war sooner than I expected, Yuna… there shall be more grief and sorrow until this is over…"  
  
"I understand, sir…"  
  
"Commence your attack between 0300 and 0330 hours, that leaves you 3½ hours to get to the New Edward's base. Report back at 0600 hours. Over and out."  
  
The screen became blank; Yuna stood up and shut the laptop.  
  
"Mission accepted."  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Somewhere else on Earth, others were also getting worried about the increasing presence of the new Serpent troops.  
  
"Hey, guys. Come and take a look and this," Duo motioned for the others to look at the screen, "What do you-all reckon?" He shot a glance at Heero and asked for his opinion, when his question wasn't answered he shrugged his shoulders and looked at the other pilots.  
  
"Seems like a rebuilt Barton Army are going to invade soon, can't be sure when though… " Heero continued to observe all the details on the screen but said nothing more.  
  
Wufei immediately leaned forward and started to look worried. "What do you make of all this, Trowa?"  
  
"I can't be sure. It certainly doesn't appear to be a bluff by the looks of their organization," Trowa frowned and folded his arms. "But why would they want to start a war again? There doesn't seem to be an objective to all this…"  
  
"We should warn Miss Relena about-" started Quatre but was almost immediately interrupted by Heero.  
  
"Relena can only try and hold them up politically, the Barton Army is not just going to sit by and wait for them to finish discussing this in a committee. From the looks of it, they're going to attack really soon. They've already got all the necessary troops and are positioned all around the Earth Sphere," Heero looked at each one of them in turn before returning is gaze to the computer screen, "They're just waiting for the right time."  
  
"…" Everyone was silent.  
  
"We can't rely on Relena all the time… she's got enough on her shoulders."  
  
Duo who had been hacking the computer and listening to Heero at the same time, suddenly spoke.  
  
"Well… this was unexpected," everyone turned to look at Duo while he continued to type endless codes into the system, "It looks as though the New Edward's base is one of the main communications ports between the Bartons that are on Earth and space!"  
  
"What!?" Quatre stared in disbelief at the screen, "But that was the base that was destroyed in A.C. 195!"  
  
"Yeah, but they rebuilt it. Didn't you know?" Duo raised an eyebrow.  
  
"I did know but why would they use a base that was so obvious?"  
  
Wufei glanced at Quatre and then spoke up. "That's the point, Quatre. Who would think that such an obvious base would be used? That's the clever part of it because New Edward's base had already been searched."  
  
"That just goes to show that the new leader is someone clever as well as powerful." Trowa stated.  
  
"Hold on a second," Everyone looked at Wufei. "You said that the army already has sufficient forces to launch an attack very soon, right?"  
  
Heero returned the query. "Yes, that's what we said. Something wrong, Wufei?"  
  
Wufei shuffled around uncomfortably. "I think they're gonna attack sooner than we think…"  
  
"Well what makes you think that?" Duo asked.  
  
"I just have this feeling."  
  
"You're nuts."  
  
"My intuition is never wrong! I am a warrior and I trust my senses!!!"  
  
Quatre stepped in between Duo and the advancing Wufei. "Hold it guys! Look, maybe Wufei has a point and there's no harm in checking. Right, Duo?" He shot Duo a glare as he said this.  
  
Duo sighed. "Whatever you say…" He resumed his typing while the others waited in silence for several minutes. But then, just when Wufei was starting to doubt himself- "What the…" Duo's eyes widened and his hands slipped then fell from the keyboard.  
  
Everyone looked up. "What?"  
  
"Looks like your intuition was dead on."  
  
"Gimme a look." Trowa observed the data on the screen, slowly unfolded his arms and fell silent.  
  
"HA! What did I say?" Wufei grinned. "Told you my senses never deceived me!"  
  
"So when are they actually going to attack?" Heero asked. Trowa was the one who whispered the answer but it was loud enough for all in the room to hear.  
  
"Tomorrow…"  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Relena walked into the House of Powers and was greeted by the Earth's Secretary of the State. It was a very large building and kind of resembled the White House that the president of the United States used to live in around the A.D 1900 years.  
  
"How do you do, Vice Foreign Minister Darlian? I hope you're well." He shook her hand vigorously and Relena smiled in reply.  
  
"I'm very well, thank you, Mr. Swinton."  
  
"That's always good to hear. I hope we have not caused you any problems dragging you here without any warning of this meeting Miss Relena, if we have, we are frightfully sorry about it." Relena giggled and shook her head.  
  
"No, no problems at all! I've been meaning to do a slight bit of travelling myself."  
  
"I see," Mr. Swinton smiled again. "The meeting begins at 10a.m. tomorrow morning, please feel free to do anything you like."  
  
"Thank you very much, sir." Relena shook his hand again and set off down the hall. A few corridors down, just as she was turning round a corner, Relena collided with someone only slightly taller than herself but of much stronger stature and who seemed to be in a great hurry. She started and took a quick step backwards, as she did so; she stepped on her own dress and lost her balance. She fell forwards and felt strong arms wrap around her waist; preventing her from hitting the ground. Relena looked up and saw a pair of prussian blue eyes looking back at her. She meant to say "Thank you." but all that came out was "What… I mean thanks! I mean…"  
  
"Good to see you too, Relena."  
  
"Heero!!!" Relena seemed to have got her senses back and immediately stood up and threw her arms around him in a tight hug. "Where have you been all this time? I missed you so much!" Heero gave a quick smile but didn't reply.  
  
"Heero? What's the matter?" Relena was sure something wasn't right. Heero looked as though something was really troubling him, and Relena knew it had to take something pretty big to even get him mildly upset.  
  
"I don't have a lot of time to explain, Relena," Heero grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty room, "Listen, there is someone who is about to use the Serpent troops to attack and take over the Earth Sphere. I don't know whom but I know that it has something to do with the Barton Army. We need you to buy us some time by bringing this to the attention of the Earth Sphere, myself and the others will try and stop them before they can launch a full scale attack."  
  
Relena just stared at Heero if as in disbelief. 'How could this be? It hasn't even been one year of peace… But… I thought… it was over. All the struggles we've been through… Was it all in vain?' Relena gasped as the information finally sank in. "… Heero…? But…"  
  
Heero looked at her in pity. "I'm so sorry, Relena… Neither the Preventers nor we spotted this in time to prevent it from developing… We have to try and stop this."  
  
"How could this all happen so fast?" Relena whispered. "Heero, when are you… leaving?"  
  
"As soon as our Gundams are prepared."  
  
"And when will that be?"  
  
"Once I return to the base…"  
  
Relena's eyes widened in shock as Heero continued to inform her about the plan. "Why so soon, Heero!?" she yelled. "Why not wait until I tell the committee about this?"  
  
Heero seemed to understand her predicament and decided to tell her everything. "Because the army plans to launch the first attack tomorrow…"  
  
Back at the base the other pilots had prepared their own Gundams and Wing Zero as well since Heero was late. Duo looked up from his cockpit.  
  
Where's Heero? Man, this has gotta be the first time he's late!"  
  
"We've still got time before we need to leave," Quatre stood up and gave Sandrock a final check, "He'll be here in time, just trust me."  
  
"Well, speak of the devil." Quatre looked up to see what Duo was talking about.  
  
"Oh! Heero you're back. What took you?" Heero glanced at Wing Zero. It was all prepared and ready for take-off in bird-mode.  
  
"Thanks for preparing Zero." Duo couldn't help but notice a very slight grin on Heero's face.  
  
'Hmmm… I wonder what he's so happy about…' wondered Duo. Since Heero had not answered Quatres' question, Wufei asked it again with more seriousness in his voice.  
  
"What kept you, Heero?" Heero merely looked at him. "We don't exactly have a lot of time. I hope whatever you did was important."  
  
"I was getting another objective to fight and stay alive for." Heero smiled and looked at each of the puzzled faces of the other pilots.  
  
"What do you mean, Heero?" asked Trowa.  
  
"You'll all figure it out by yourselves soon enough." With that, he walked over to his Gundam, climbed into the cockpit and gestured for the others to get going.  
  
If the first assault was really tomorrow, then it was likely to be the most crippling and damaging one so that opposition forces would be weakened by surprise. It also meant that tomorrow would be the day when more innocent souls would have to leave this life.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~* 


End file.
